Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Richard Cooley, the Milford man charged with selling a quantity of fentanyl to a woman on which she allegedly overdosed and died, listens to Judge Jacalyn Colburn at Monday's Superior Court hearing, which was conducted via video conference from the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin.

NASHUA – Defense lawyers representing Richard F. Cooley, the Milford man charged with selling to a Hudson woman a quantity of fentanyl on which she overdosed and died, raised no objections Monday to the state’s proposed bail order that keeps Cooley in jail until his next court hearing.

“We’re stipulating to preventive detention,” attorney Daniel Donadio said at Cooley’s Superior Court arraignment, adding that the stipulation includes the defense’s right to ask for a bail hearing.

Donadio and co-counsel Elliot Friedman told Judge Jacalyn Colburn that they’d like to exercise that right, and the hearing, which will either be an evidentiary hearing or a dispostional conference, was scheduled for April 2 in the Nashua court.

Cooley, 33, whose most recent address is 599 Mason Road in Milford, appeared at arraignment via video conference from the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin, where he is being held as the case proceeds.

Assistant Attorney General John Harding, who is prosecuting the case, uploaded the proposed preventive detention bail order about a week ago, and told the court he agrees with the April 2 hearing.

A grand jury in January indicted Cooley on two felony charges stemming from the alleged sale of fentanyl to the woman, who was found unresponsive by her fiancee the morning of May 11 and later pronounced dead. She was 27.

Police arrested Cooley following their investigation into the circumstances of her death. The grand jury returned indictments on one count each of sale of a controlled drug – death resulting, and dispensing a controlled drug.

The death-resulting charge is punishable by up to life imprisonment, while the other offense can bring a sentence of 7 1/2-15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

According to police reports and charging documents, the alleged victim contacted Cooley the evening of May 10 asking to purchase fentanyl. The two met outside a Milford restaurant, where the alleged transaction took place.

Court documents filed by prosecutors state that police, through their searches of Cooley’s and the woman’s phones, determined that Cooley, unaware that the woman had died, allegedly “reached out to” her “to see if she needed more narcotics.”

When Cooley received no response, the documents state, he allegedly reached out again “to ask about her well-being.”

According to the woman’s autopsy report, the cause of her death was ruled “acute intoxication by fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.